#overliberalizing

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

This post is full of misinformed, misinterpreted and out of context shit.

·         There is NO hard canonical timeline for Peter’s ages for when he began acting as a hero. At best sources stating he was 15 upon getting his powers and ASm #400’s backup strip claiming that he was 16 the night he caught the burglar is how you can arrive at the conclusion he aged into being 16 by the time he began acting as a hero. But it’s vague as fuck and both 15 and 16 are retcons. Originally Peter was written to be a senior in the Ditko run. However it makes more sense if Peter was 15 both when he got his powers and when he began acting as a hero as Mysterio (debuting in ASM #13) claimed in ASM #24 that he’s hated Spider-Man for years implying at least 2 years elapsed between that issue and his debut

·         Spider-Man circa the time this post was written was not 30 years old. He was actually older than that if you do the math properly. Do not be fooled by Learning to Crawl’s assertion he was merely 28 circa 2014 he was actually 30 years old circa OMD in 2007. So no he has egregiously more than 14 years worth of experience.

·         The list of characters Peter’s been active longer than is highly flawed due to the inclusion of Captain America, the Guardians and Jessica Jones.

Whilst the essential sentiment is accurate it’s misleading because Jessica Jones first appearance was not when she canonically began to be active in the silver age (the 1960s). Captain America of course was active in WWII and then put on ice until the early days of the Marvel Age where the F4 debuted meaning he was most experienced by like decades ahead of Spider-Man. And the Guardians debut date listed is in reference to the ORIGINAL Guardians of the Galaxy. These Guardians were not Gamora, Star-Lord, Groot, etc. These were a group of heroes from the far future of an alternate marvel universe.

So great research there.

·         The post states that 5 years real time = 1 year for the MU. Actually it’s 4 OR 5 and more commonly 4

·         Yes Spider-Man was indeed widely disliked by most heroes but the OP idiotically claims it was because he was a jerk.

 No. It was because Jameson slandered his name. Spider-Man’s jerkish behaviour was the result of three major factors.

Firstly it was the fact that many heroes outright disrespected him. for instance the Avengers not only insulted him verbally and antagonized him but they had the audacity to try and test his worthiness to join their team after only recently accepting former criminals Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye onto their team. As a reminder the former two were affiliated with mutant terrorist Magneto and the latter with Communist spy Black Widow. None of them were ever tested, the Maximoffs just wrote a letter asking to join and that was it.

Secondly in the Silver and Bronze age ALL heroes in Marvel were jerks to one another. It was a conscious effort to differentiate themselves from DC. It isn’t something to be taken too seriously.

Thirdly Peter was well beyond most other heroes straining under immense pressures which would serve to make ANYONE uptight. These were pressures most other heroes simply never dealt with.

·         The OP claims Peter picked fights to prove how tough and manly he was. This is not only ignorant of 1960s societal standards for the time but is also an overly comdemnatory reading of the character

See these for more on that

https://hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger.tumblr.com/post/163322233001/in-a-recent-exchange-i-had-with-somebody-they

https://hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger.tumblr.com/post/168252199132/fyeahspiderverse-ask-me-ask-me-ask#notes

This poster takes an oversimplified and highly pretentious sociological approach to the character that is ignorant of the character’s proper in context psychology or how many real life people would think, feel or act.

Noticably (and this is much later on in the post) she talks about the character revelling in violence when MOST superheroes are just like that and more poignantly the ‘revelling’ involved is a character harming objectively evil people the overwhelming majority of the time.

He gets brutal in the course of a brutal life dealing with brutal people doing horribly brutal things.

Does he lose his temper from time to time?

Yeah...but EVERY PERSON ON EARTH DOES THAT...and most people on Earth are not coping with the insane levels of personal stress being placed upon Spider-Man.

The OP I am willing to bet does not deal with anything CLOSE to the amount of horrible experiences and stresses Spider-Man himself does.

·         The OP paints Peter is a disgustingly negative light. Listing how he is oudmouthed, proud, independent, stubborn, touchy, cocky, judgmental, and he has one hell of a temper that he typically can barely keep under control. He has a firm sense of justice, of what’s right and what’s wrong, and if he’s made up his mind, he will not budge.

This is BS because not only are there numerous instances of Peter having his mind changed but Peter being ‘touchy’ is usually owed a fuckton more to the situations he finds himself in and the stresses he’s coping with. FFS Peter for the first 18 years of his life has no friends and was bullied and ostracised. OF COURSE HE’D BE TOUCHY!

Similarly his’ barely controllable temper’ was a feature more during the silver and bronze age when writing standards for many superheroes was very different from what it’d later evolve into and the character was a lot younger too.

YES Peter has had moments where his temper breaks in later stories but they were situational.

But what’s gross about the OP is that she lists of all this stuff as part of Peter’s personality and then lists nothing else.

Nothing else.

Peter’s kindness?

Peter’s sense of loyalty?

Peter’s sense of you know...responsibility?

Peter’s sheer decency?

Peter’s ‘never say die’ attitude?

Peter’s sense of humour?

Peter’s fondness for learning?

Peter NOT being as judgemental as the OP is grossly pretending he is considering he never once held Flash Thompson once assaulting his girlfriend, Betty cheating on her husband or many other bad things his friends have done against them?

Which showcases an incredibly forgiving nature to the character.

·         The OP claims Spider-Man REVELS in violence and loves fighting.

No Spider-Man loves blowing off steam with action which MOST superheroes do. It’s not a Peter thing it’s a genre convention thing and needs to be properly looked at WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE GENRE CONVENTIONS of the series and Marvel in general.

Does Spider-Man love beating up bad guys?

I think he certainly gets a certain thrill out of it, but he rarely seriously injures them unless the situation is serious or else he’s been pushed hard.

In the 1980s the violence Peter was witnessing in various street crimes actually served to seriously affect him and he wanted to quit.

Shit he’s wanted to quit COUNTLESS times and it’s his sense of responsibility that keeps him in the game.

That is NOT someone who just ‘loves’ fighting or ‘revels’ in violence.

·         “He punches first and asks questions much, much later. ”

Again bullshit. Not only have there been instances where Spidey has asked questions first but this interpretation of Spider-Man is extremely flawed not only because it doesn’t properly contextualize genre conventions of the superhero genre (Daredevil and Batman are as ‘guilty’ of this as Spider-Man) but also because 99% of the crimes Spider-Man ‘punches first’ he catches red handed in the middle of the act.

He doesn’t need to ask questions if he sees someone in a ski mask with a gun holding up someone screaming in an alleyway.

He doesn’t need to ask questions when he sees what is obviously a bank robbery in progress.

He doesn’t need to ask questions first if the Rhino is rampaging in Times Square.

It’s OBVIOUS what is happening so his immediate intervention is neccesarry.

·          The OP claims Spidey “goes out every night LOOKING for people to beat to a bloody pulp. It’s like his therapy, where he works out his many anger issues (I could write a whole essay on where those come from).”

First of all the OP couldn’t write a whole essay on where Spider-Man’s anger issues come from since she patently misunderstands Spider-Man.

Secondly beating up criminals isn’t Spider-Man’s ‘therepy’ it’s Spider-Man’s way of helping people by reducing the crime rate and protecting innocent civilians.

See ASm #50 where he retires briefly and crime rates spike.

See ASm #500 where he chooses to not prevent his younger self from becoming Spider-Man due to how many people wouldn’t be saved by him.

See EVERY SPIDER-MAN STORY EVER!

Spider-Man doesn’t go out every night looking to beat people to a bloody pulp.

I’m a Liberal and even I think that’s overliberalized bullshit.

If you actually pay attention Spider-Man rarely draws blood when going out on patrol let alone causes any serious physical trauma whatsoever.

More importantly going out on patrol looking for ‘people to beat up’ isn’t his fucking hobby. That’s him using his powers to help people by fighting crime...like the kind that got his Uncle Ben killed perhaps. Fucking idiot.

  ·         “He is not afraid of the unsuperpowered criminals he hunts down because they literally CANNOT LAY A FINGER ON HIM AND HE KNOWS IT AND ALWAYS HAS.”

Yeah.

Remember all those times ‘unsuperpowered criminals’ like the Kingpin or the Enforcers or the Foreigner or Captain fucking America never hit him once?

·         “The criminals are terrified of HIM. ”

Some are, some are not.

He isn’t Batman, it’s more they know they have little chance of avoiding capture if Spider-Man’s there. They aren’t actually afraid of him in the way the term ‘terrified’ implies.

They are afraid of him the way they are afraid of Superman. They know Superman isn’t going to hurt them much if at all but they know they’re in for jail if they cross him.

·         “He is unstoppable when he’s angry.”

Is that why Daredevil was able to defeat him in the Death of Jean DeWolff when he was angry?

·         OP uses Peter complaining how normal crooks are boring as an example of Spider-Man inherent personality and as an example to again paint him in a negative light.

This is BS because the issue is premeditated upon building up his pride before Doc Ock kicks his ass and humbles him.

He rarely if ever displays that kind of attitude towards regular criminals again.

This is also a TEENAGER displaying TEENAGE pride. There is nothing damning about that.

Oh but the character must’ve just inherently been that forever more obviously.

·         OP uses Untold Tales #13 as an example of how ‘toxically violent’ Spider-Man is.

Again ignores context.

Spider-Man is a teenager who recently lost his Dad who’s school peer who was his own age violently died very recently and so he was grieving and lashing out.

I knew kids who were children of divorce who lashed out.

That was cause for understanding by my teachers and fellow students.

Peter was dealing with worse but he’s painted negatively and as though this is something inherent to him in this very extenuating circumstance. And he’s comdened by the OP for it. Gross.

Also the OP pretends Spider-Man almost killed the villain in question. He didn’t there is no indication of that. Spidey used too much force after he’d already won but he was never implied to be inflicting any really serious physical trauma.

·         The most disgusting thing in the post so far, OP tries to pretend there is a problematic and inherent ‘pattern’ of Peter’s violence by citing how Peter almost killed Norman Osborn after Gwen died.

First of all there was no pattern because Peter didn’t almost kill the Untold Tales villain.

Second of all Peter was DELIBERATELY trying to muder the Green Goblin.

Third of all both instances involve Peter grieving.

Fourth of all the GG incident was when his almost fiancée had just been MURDERED before his eyes by the target of his anger.

Literally ANYONE would’ve felt the same way Peter did.

The OP treats people becoming violently angry against objectively evil people when they have or are very seriously threatening to do horrific things (like murdering innocent people, particularly those Spider-Man has an emotional investment in)  as ‘problematic’.

It’s problematic in so far as we shouldn’t ALLOW people in society to go around doing that.

It isn’t problematic in so far as it speaks to inherent negative traits within those people who want to or actually do do those things.

Because let’s not lie to ourselves here.

If someone murdered someone you loved...you’d be angry. You’d want to hurt them. And if they were right in front of you shortly after they’d murdered your loved one and you could you’d inflict pain upon them.

Real talk every parent ever would agree if they’re child was hurt or god forbid abused or murdered they’d want to kill the person who did that.

And the OP disgustingly ignores how Peter DIDN’T kill the Goblin and acknowledged how he almost crossed a serious line having already gone too far.

·         OP brings up ANOTHER instance where Spider-Man gets angry and violent to again unsubtley imply it’s so problematic.

Yes in this instance Spider-Man used force unnecessarily whilst angry.

He however inflicted no lasting damage and the person he used it on had just murdered an innocent man who had a family.

·         “ASM #177, where, as you can see, he’s downright contemptuous of other people’s attempts to harm him”

 Contemptuous was an interpretation of the OP, not something hardcore without a doubt the emotion Spider-Man was going with.

Frankly in the panels showcased i’d say Spidey was more surprised and mocking towards the guy who was again...a huge asshole.

He believed it was his friend Harry who was from Peter’s POV betraying his friendship, had tried to harma dn murder him, Aunt May, Flash and MJ in the past, had hospitalized MJ and at that PARTICULAR moment in the story was wasting Peter’s time as Aunt May’s life was hanging in the balance.

So yes Spider-Man mocked him and hit him.

Shockingly you are allowed to hit people sometimes FFS.

Oh and btw the issue number wasn’t even correct.

·         OP uses ASM #189 to further support their case. This is one example where I WOULD agree that the panels legitimately support the agenda they are trying to push.

The problem is that the panels are also OOC.

Spider-Man had never to my recollection ever acted this was towards a doctor before and only particular situations had served to spur him to act this way.

This was part of the Marv Wolfman run where to be brutally honest there was more than a little OOC writing of many characters and an over all regressive approach to Spider-man in particular.

He’s MORE rash and MORE aggressive and MORE of a jerk than he’d been in a long ass time even under Stan Lee’s tenure.

And this made sense because Wolfman pretentiously regarded himself as a Ditko ‘purist’ who believed Spider-Man should never have left high school. And so he wrote Spider-Man in a regressive way to the point where often times, like in the referenced panel from ASM #189 he acted in ways that didn’t make sense for a 22 year old written for 1979 standards vs a teenager written for 1963 standards.

Further proof can be observed in how his writing for Mary jane in her rejection of Peter’s proposal played as though she never developed from the silver age onwards.

·         “ASM #193 – this is VERY 616 Peter. He’s frustrated with his personal life, so he decides to take it out (violently) on a bad guy:”

Again...Wolfman’s run, but in this case he is not doing anything particularly wrong within the genre and societal conventions of the time.

Genre conventions dictated that in superhero comic book land hitting criminals is 100% okay because they are bad guys.

Therefore since Spider-Man does that anyway, venting his frustrations into something productive is also okay.

Societal conventions dictated that this was the late 1970s and early 1980s...in New York.

70s and 80s New York was ROUGH and had problems with street crime that got more violent into the 1980s, at least according to the media.

You know how in the Daredevil Netflix show they said because of the Battle of New York Hell’s Kitchen had gone downhill?

That was because they were trying to justify modern day Hell’s Kitchen resembling the kind of dark crime ridden place it was in the 70s and 80s at the height of Daredevil’s popularity.

NYC was ROUGH and that was attributed a lot to crime and so a crime fighter like Spider-Man getting rough would’ve been regarded as fine as would him doing it to vent anger.

The angrier he gets the more criminals he beats up meaning the more go to jail meaning the streets are safer. So all the better.

That was the logic of the time period.

Remember this was the decade that spawned DIRTY HARRY!

This was a decade where Vietnam wrapped up in abject failure and Watergate broke out. People were fucking angry and disillusioned.

And to add further context Marv Wolfman wrote Superman in the 1980s post-crisis era as getting rough with criminals too because Wolfman was a child of the era where both superheroes and crime/gangster stories involved that sort of mentality. His Superman was the Golden Age one who got rough a lot and it was seen as fine because criminals were bad and therefore deserved it.

Now bear all that shit in mind when reading ASM #189...where Spider-Man in hunting down a dangerous super villain who could endure blows from him and whom he’d need to find and stop anyway...whilst he’s coping with Aunt May being in a nursing home, his relationship with MJ whom he is in love with disintegrating, his relationship with Betty also disintegrating and having just taken a punch to the jaw from Ned Leeds his old rival.

YOU CANNOT REMOVE SHIT FROM THE CONTEXT OF THE TIMES THEY WERE CREATED IN!

·         More of OP being a disgenuous jerk by pretending Spider-Man losing his temper in confronting the man who murdered Uncle Ben is problematic.

“…notice how a mask seems pretty unnecessary here, despite the fact that his opponent is armed. Peter doesn’t even hesitate. He is out for blood.”

A)     The Burglar was not initially unarmed he lost his gun in the scuffle depicted in the panels from the OP

B)      Real talk...who WOULDN’T lose their temper confronting the guy who MURDERED THEIR DAD to the point where they’d come close to seriously injuring them?

C)      Peter believed Aunt May had recently DIED and that it was at least partially his fault

D)     The OP conveniently neglects that the Burglar was threatening Spider-Man with a gun a panel before Peter attacked him and that Spider-Man doesn’t have his powers in this instance. In other words shortly after his mother figure’s death an unarmed and helpless Peter Parker was confronted by an armed known killer who killed his father figure in cold blood and was threatening his life. And he’s ‘problematic’ for assaulting him angrily and threatening to kill him. Can you spell ‘self’defence’?

OP is also disingenuous because she paints Spider-Man’s rage and scary demanor as the fault of the Burglar’s death when it was just the Burglar working himself up.

Spider-Man made it explicitly clear he was NOT going to kill or maim the Burglar but the Burglar was just too worked up and had a heart attack.

·         OP brings up Spec v2 #10 where Spider-Man is beating the shit out of Doc Ock....but conveniently doesn’t include the panels prior to that incident where Doc Ock pointlessly murdered an innocent police officer violently and then threatened to murder someone everyday for a year...after he nearly deliberately instigated a war between Israel and Palestine!  I am NOT making that up Doc Ock nearly set off a war between Israel and Palestine just to force Spider-Man into revealing his secret identity

FFS is Spider-man REALLY this violence revelling brute for punching the shit out of him for that!

Doc Ock took an innocent life, threatened to take more and was willing to risk MILLIONS of people dying in a war that could’ve lasted years because of his own stupid ego and obsession.

Like fuck dude WAR CRIMINALS have been executed for less than that but SPIDER-MAN is a violence addict because he punched Doc Ock a bit and humiliated him?

Look real talk Spidey making Doc Ock ‘ask him nicely’ was OOC (the OP doesn’t seem to realize such a thing could ever possibly happen) but even if it wasn’t it doesn’t prove the OP’s point because the CONTEXT OF THE SITUATION MATTERS.

·         “ASM #522, where he loses his temper and throws Wolverine out of a window:”

Yes.

First thing in the morning after he’s been woken up abruptly by the worrying and mind boggling news that his wife has been sleeping with Tony Stark the guy who’s been insulting him on and off for awhile and who is now very directly insulting his pride and his beloved, long suffering wife (who’s lived through hell for him and has saved his life a million times too).

And he does the equivalent of punching the guy.

How ‘problematic’ and ‘toxic’ that must be.

Gimme a break.

Also remember Spider-Man doesn’t normally randomly punch people, even those who insult him despite the bullshit picture the OP is trying to paint.

·         “ASM #539, the first issue in the “Back in Black” arc where Aunt May is shot on Kingpin’s orders, and Peter PUNCHES, INTIMIDATES, AND THREATENS HIS WAY THROUGH THE UNDERWORLD trying to figure out who was responsible. I would recommend reading this arc for a good look at Peter when he’s beyond furious”

OP disingenuously pretending that Peter when he is beyond furious is Spider-Man’s default setting as opposed to Spider-Man under extenuating and/or exceptional circumstances.

You know like when someone has shot his mother who is now dying and might pose a threat to yet more of his friends and family!

Like FUCK how are you so dense as to not properly contextualize shit.

·         “Notice, again, the lack of a mask. Peter’s not even slightly frightened by the thought of diving into a room FULL of criminals armed with machine guns where he’s outnumbered by what looks like about 7 to 1.”

OP seemingly conveniently ignoring that in Back In Black (the story being referenced here) Spider-Man identity was public so it doesn’t matter that he didn’t have his mask

·         “I find these panels more telling than Peter vs. Norman in #122 – in that one, Peter lost his temper momentarily but quickly snapped out of it and realized he didn’t have it in him to commit murder. Here, he’s completely cool. He genuinely plans to murder Kingpin. He’s thought about it. He wants to do it. He will do it without a moment’s hesitation if the need arises, if that’s what it takes to protect his family – that’s what 616 Peter does. He protects everyone around him. He takes the punishment they cannot.”

I find this part the most mind boggling of all because the OP’s statements here are not untrue but also make no sense in her characterization of Peter as toxic.

·         “I could keep going with this all day, because this is who he is in the comics, but I’ll stop there. ”

Again no.

This is who Peter is at TIMES in the comics under certain circumstances and at particular points in his history. That isn’t what he is like at his regular default setting when horrible or seriously stressful or emotionally triggering things are not happening to him.

He ISN’T like this for instance in the Digger arc of JMS’ run.

He ISN’T like this in ASM #301

He ISN’T like this in ASM #41

He ISN’T like this in the Kid Who Collected Spider-Man

·         “Does this angry, vengeful man who REVELS in violence really seem like he’s scared of, I don’t know, ANYONE? Don’t let the jokes fool you. Peter’s not someone you want to make angry. He is terrifying when he’s angry.”

Again OP speaks bullshit because

a)      Peter doesn’t revel in violence. That’d inply real enjoyment. He at worst vents using it

b)      Peter isn’t scared of anyone huh?

 Sister let me introduce you to Spider-Man’s ex...and her new man.

Their shipper name...is Venom....

[kianasblog97]

Hi, don’t worry about the haters. They are ridiculous. You’re not a racist for expressing an opinion. Racism means that you believe that certain groups of people based on ethnicity or minority status are worth less than other groups of people. I find that none of your posts convey this. Don’t worry about the overliberal sjw on tumblr. Their love of victimizing themselves and racism witch hunts will not help them in real life. Also these people telling you to die is disgusting. You do you girl!

😍

[kontextmaschine]

I was trawling your archives and I came across your coining of empathorrhea as the antonym of sociopathy, which is a) brilliant, and b) I can only assume you were avoiding "giving a shit" puns because it's just too much of a low-hanging fruit. Also, any advice for a new biker just getting his first bike?

I was working with the trope of overliberalism equating to permeability and a failure to keep the internal internal – “bleeding heart” and all that – but I didn’t think of the “give a shit” angle. That’d make the caremad the REAL shitlords, huh?

And the bike - for your first I’d recommend something around 550cc or 650 max, which is enough for distance but shouldn’t offer you more than you could handle.

Take it out on pleasure drives, maybe in warmer weather if you’re in the northern hemisphere. Cruise neighborhoods and towns one or two over just to see what’s there, look up online someone’s probably recommended a scenic ride nearby.

And remember to check your fluids, your tire pressure, and your chain every so often.

[j216]

interlocutrices overliberal by Jared Haer Tempests Unresistedness Study #me #creativecode #trippy #generative #fineart #tweegram #Python

[usviraltrends-blog]

New Post has been published on https://usviraltrends.com/xi-jinping-is-making-sweeping-changes-to-how-chinas-government-is-run-55/

Xi Jinping is making sweeping changes to how China's government is run

From a powerful new financial regulator to a super ministry to deal with the environment, wide-reaching changes to the way China is governed were passed by the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, on Saturday.

Experts said the sweeping reforms were some of the largest since the end of the Mao Zedong era in the 1970s.

“Clearly Xi is shoring up his power, but I would suggest what China also wants to do more than anything else is define a mode of government which is not liberal and at the same time … is predictable, reliable, which is safe for businesses to invest in,” Rana Mitter, director of the University China Center at Oxford, told CNN.

According to state media, under the new plan the number of ministerial-level bodies will be reduced by eight to make the government “better-structured (and) more efficient.”

However, Mitter said the entire Chinese power structure has effectively been reshaped around Xi’s priorities, including cracking down on corruption, shoring up the economy and environmental protection.

Here are five of the most significant changes and what they mean for China.

China is planning to formalize the rules for its new anti-corruption agency, the National Supervisory Commission or NSC.

It’s the latest stage of Xi’s ruthless campaign against corruption in China, which forced out multiple high-level party leaders and sent thousands of other officials to jail.

The new commission has long been teased in official media and its powers are expected to extend outside the Communist Party and the military to the rest of the government.

What does it mean?

In a December report examining the framework of the new commission, Amnesty International said it was concerned the body’s “far-reaching powers” could significantly infringe on Chinese citizens’ human rights.

It is expected to run parallel to China’s judiciary, effectively putting it alongside, if not above, courts and prosecutors. A Brookings Institute analysis of the new laws said citizens accused of corruption would have “little or no legal recourse” to challenge the body.

Jiangnan Zhu, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s politics department, said the new commission would have agencies at national, provincial, prefectural and county levels, giving it countrywide reach.

“It will be the highest state organ of supervision … It will help solidify the Chinese Communist Party’s hold of the Chinese government and discipline a wider array of people who engage in public sectors,” she said.

China is creating an environmental protection super ministry to tackle the growing problem of pollution in its fast-growing economy, the government announced Tuesday.

Air pollution killed more than 1.1 million people in China in 2015, the most in the world, according to a study published by the US-based Health Effects Institute.

Replacing the Ministry for Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Ecological Environment will set China’s future environmental policies as well as ensuring they are properly enforced.

New evidence from a University of Chicago study found China was making progress in its “war on pollution,” improving air quality by as much as 42% in parts of the country.

What does it mean?

Pollution control was one of “three battles” identified by Xi in 2017 as a focus for his second term as China’s President, the other two being defusing financial risks and eradicating poverty.

Ma Jun, one of China’s best known environmentalists, told CNN the new ministry would help to strengthen pollution controls and build a “beautiful China.”

“Taking water pollution as an example, the original duties of groundwater, watershed management and agricultural pollution control fall under various ministries and commissions … resulting in responsibility overlaps and buck-passing,” he said.

“After the integration of these responsibilities, the long-term situation of the ‘Nine dragons governing the water collectively’ will end,” he said, using a Chinese saying.

With the reorganization, China’s government will also take concrete steps to address the second of Xi’s three battles — growing concerns around financial risk and bad debt endangering the Chinese economy.

In May 2017, China’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s amid concerns over their debt levels, which rose to about 170% of GDP in the previous year. Seven months later, insurance giant Anbang was seized by the government, ostensibly due to concerns over its billion-dollar spending sprees outside China.

A new Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will be created by combining two former regulators, while the People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank — will be given additional regulatory powers.

According to party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the changes are designed to supervise China’s growing financial industries to avoid “financial risks” and protect consumer rights.

What does it mean?

The Chinese government and Xi himself have placed a huge emphasis on shoring up the country’s economy to avoid collapse or recession.

Shi Dalong, researcher with Suning Financial Services, said in a report the past supervision of Chinese banks and financial services hadn’t been smooth.

But there could be a risks going forward as the new commission and Xi ally Liu He work to tighten regulations, Tan Kong Yam, Economics professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told CNN.

“(In the past) there have been periods where they tighten credit and it lead to slower growth, so they had to relax somewhat. It’s a very fine balance between disciplining the system … and overliberalizing it,” he said.

Tan said there were also likely to be complaints from state-owned enterprises and banks as they found it increasingly difficult to get easy credit and loans to expand.

A new international development cooperation agency will be set up to help coordinate China’s aid across the world, according to state broadcaster Xinhua.

It will report directly to the State Council, China’s cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang. The aim is to enhance China’s international credentials as a “major country,” according to state media.

Previously China had no dedicated agency devoted to foreign aid, despite giving tens of billions of dollars in overseas assistance since 2000. There is little transparency over how China’s aid is spent, however, or how much is investment and loans compared to actual assistance.

What does it mean?

China has an increasingly ambitious foreign policy, including its huge Belt and Road trade and investment program, and is shaking up its foreign ministry as US global influence wanes under President Donald Trump.

Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister and director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, told CNN previously Beijing had provided aid in a “heavy-handed manner.”

“I think they will shift to a profile in overseas development that will resemble that of OECD countries,” he said.

“They’ve been studying it for some time and I think (the new agency) means aid will be more directly related to the social and economic needs of the state. Fewer big political or vanity projects and fewer examples of a Chinese-built road to a Chinese port to a Chinese mine.”

It was the agency that implemented China’s infamous one-child policy with an iron fist from its creation in 1981 until government control was relaxed in 2015.

Now the Chinese government has announced the Family Planning Commission will be dismantled as the administration moves away from population control.

What does it mean?

China’s birth rate dropped in 2017, down 630,000 compared to the previous year, despite the government announcing two years ago Chinese couples were officially allowed to have a second child.

The removal of the Family Planning Commission was both “important and symbolic,” Yi Fuxian, scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “A Big Country in an Empty Nest” told CNN.

“With the enforcer of family planning population policy retiring from the historical stage, China has completed a u-turn in the national population policy,” he said.

“I believe it’s the end of an old era and start of a new era for population policy — respect for life, protection of human rights, regard population as wealth rather than waste, and treat people as human beings rather than trash.”

[usviraltrends-blog]

New Post has been published on https://usviraltrends.com/xi-jinping-is-making-sweeping-changes-to-how-chinas-government-is-run-54/

Xi Jinping is making sweeping changes to how China's government is run

From a powerful new financial regulator to a super ministry to deal with the environment, wide-reaching changes to the way China is governed were passed by the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, on Saturday.

Experts said the sweeping reforms were some of the largest since the end of the Mao Zedong era in the 1970s.

“Clearly Xi is shoring up his power, but I would suggest what China also wants to do more than anything else is define a mode of government which is not liberal and at the same time … is predictable, reliable, which is safe for businesses to invest in,” Rana Mitter, director of the University China Center at Oxford, told CNN.

According to state media, under the new plan the number of ministerial-level bodies will be reduced by eight to make the government “better-structured (and) more efficient.”

However, Mitter said the entire Chinese power structure has effectively been reshaped around Xi’s priorities, including cracking down on corruption, shoring up the economy and environmental protection.

Here are five of the most significant changes and what they mean for China.

China is planning to formalize the rules for its new anti-corruption agency, the National Supervisory Commission or NSC.

It’s the latest stage of Xi’s ruthless campaign against corruption in China, which forced out multiple high-level party leaders and sent thousands of other officials to jail.

The new commission has long been teased in official media and its powers are expected to extend outside the Communist Party and the military to the rest of the government.

What does it mean?

In a December report examining the framework of the new commission, Amnesty International said it was concerned the body’s “far-reaching powers” could significantly infringe on Chinese citizens’ human rights.

It is expected to run parallel to China’s judiciary, effectively putting it alongside, if not above, courts and prosecutors. A Brookings Institute analysis of the new laws said citizens accused of corruption would have “little or no legal recourse” to challenge the body.

Jiangnan Zhu, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s politics department, said the new commission would have agencies at national, provincial, prefectural and county levels, giving it countrywide reach.

“It will be the highest state organ of supervision … It will help solidify the Chinese Communist Party’s hold of the Chinese government and discipline a wider array of people who engage in public sectors,” she said.

China is creating an environmental protection super ministry to tackle the growing problem of pollution in its fast-growing economy, the government announced Tuesday.

Air pollution killed more than 1.1 million people in China in 2015, the most in the world, according to a study published by the US-based Health Effects Institute.

Replacing the Ministry for Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Ecological Environment will set China’s future environmental policies as well as ensuring they are properly enforced.

New evidence from a University of Chicago study found China was making progress in its “war on pollution,” improving air quality by as much as 42% in parts of the country.

What does it mean?

Pollution control was one of “three battles” identified by Xi in 2017 as a focus for his second term as China’s President, the other two being defusing financial risks and eradicating poverty.

Ma Jun, one of China’s best known environmentalists, told CNN the new ministry would help to strengthen pollution controls and build a “beautiful China.”

“Taking water pollution as an example, the original duties of groundwater, watershed management and agricultural pollution control fall under various ministries and commissions … resulting in responsibility overlaps and buck-passing,” he said.

“After the integration of these responsibilities, the long-term situation of the ‘Nine dragons governing the water collectively’ will end,” he said, using a Chinese saying.

With the reorganization, China’s government will also take concrete steps to address the second of Xi’s three battles — growing concerns around financial risk and bad debt endangering the Chinese economy.

In May 2017, China’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s amid concerns over their debt levels, which rose to about 170% of GDP in the previous year. Seven months later, insurance giant Anbang was seized by the government, ostensibly due to concerns over its billion-dollar spending sprees outside China.

A new Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will be created by combining two former regulators, while the People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank — will be given additional regulatory powers.

According to party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the changes are designed to supervise China’s growing financial industries to avoid “financial risks” and protect consumer rights.

What does it mean?

The Chinese government and Xi himself have placed a huge emphasis on shoring up the country’s economy to avoid collapse or recession.

Shi Dalong, researcher with Suning Financial Services, said in a report the past supervision of Chinese banks and financial services hadn’t been smooth.

But there could be a risks going forward as the new commission and Xi ally Liu He work to tighten regulations, Tan Kong Yam, Economics professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told CNN.

“(In the past) there have been periods where they tighten credit and it lead to slower growth, so they had to relax somewhat. It’s a very fine balance between disciplining the system … and overliberalizing it,” he said.

Tan said there were also likely to be complaints from state-owned enterprises and banks as they found it increasingly difficult to get easy credit and loans to expand.

A new international development cooperation agency will be set up to help coordinate China’s aid across the world, according to state broadcaster Xinhua.

It will report directly to the State Council, China’s cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang. The aim is to enhance China’s international credentials as a “major country,” according to state media.

Previously China had no dedicated agency devoted to foreign aid, despite giving tens of billions of dollars in overseas assistance since 2000. There is little transparency over how China’s aid is spent, however, or how much is investment and loans compared to actual assistance.

What does it mean?

China has an increasingly ambitious foreign policy, including its huge Belt and Road trade and investment program, and is shaking up its foreign ministry as US global influence wanes under President Donald Trump.

Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister and director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, told CNN previously Beijing had provided aid in a “heavy-handed manner.”

“I think they will shift to a profile in overseas development that will resemble that of OECD countries,” he said.

“They’ve been studying it for some time and I think (the new agency) means aid will be more directly related to the social and economic needs of the state. Fewer big political or vanity projects and fewer examples of a Chinese-built road to a Chinese port to a Chinese mine.”

It was the agency that implemented China’s infamous one-child policy with an iron fist from its creation in 1981 until government control was relaxed in 2015.

Now the Chinese government has announced the Family Planning Commission will be dismantled as the administration moves away from population control.

What does it mean?

China’s birth rate dropped in 2017, down 630,000 compared to the previous year, despite the government announcing two years ago Chinese couples were officially allowed to have a second child.

The removal of the Family Planning Commission was both “important and symbolic,” Yi Fuxian, scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “A Big Country in an Empty Nest” told CNN.

“With the enforcer of family planning population policy retiring from the historical stage, China has completed a u-turn in the national population policy,” he said.

“I believe it’s the end of an old era and start of a new era for population policy — respect for life, protection of human rights, regard population as wealth rather than waste, and treat people as human beings rather than trash.”

[usviraltrends-blog]

New Post has been published on https://usviraltrends.com/xi-jinping-is-making-sweeping-changes-to-how-chinas-government-is-run-52/

Xi Jinping is making sweeping changes to how China's government is run

From a powerful new financial regulator to a super ministry to deal with the environment, wide-reaching changes to the way China is governed were passed by the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, on Saturday.

Experts said the sweeping reforms were some of the largest since the end of the Mao Zedong era in the 1970s.

“Clearly Xi is shoring up his power, but I would suggest what China also wants to do more than anything else is define a mode of government which is not liberal and at the same time … is predictable, reliable, which is safe for businesses to invest in,” Rana Mitter, director of the University China Center at Oxford, told CNN.

According to state media, under the new plan the number of ministerial-level bodies will be reduced by eight to make the government “better-structured (and) more efficient.”

However, Mitter said the entire Chinese power structure has effectively been reshaped around Xi’s priorities, including cracking down on corruption, shoring up the economy and environmental protection.

Here are five of the most significant changes and what they mean for China.

China is planning to formalize the rules for its new anti-corruption agency, the National Supervisory Commission or NSC.

It’s the latest stage of Xi’s ruthless campaign against corruption in China, which forced out multiple high-level party leaders and sent thousands of other officials to jail.

The new commission has long been teased in official media and its powers are expected to extend outside the Communist Party and the military to the rest of the government.

What does it mean?

In a December report examining the framework of the new commission, Amnesty International said it was concerned the body’s “far-reaching powers” could significantly infringe on Chinese citizens’ human rights.

It is expected to run parallel to China’s judiciary, effectively putting it alongside, if not above, courts and prosecutors. A Brookings Institute analysis of the new laws said citizens accused of corruption would have “little or no legal recourse” to challenge the body.

Jiangnan Zhu, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s politics department, said the new commission would have agencies at national, provincial, prefectural and county levels, giving it countrywide reach.

“It will be the highest state organ of supervision … It will help solidify the Chinese Communist Party’s hold of the Chinese government and discipline a wider array of people who engage in public sectors,” she said.

China is creating an environmental protection super ministry to tackle the growing problem of pollution in its fast-growing economy, the government announced Tuesday.

Air pollution killed more than 1.1 million people in China in 2015, the most in the world, according to a study published by the US-based Health Effects Institute.

Replacing the Ministry for Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Ecological Environment will set China’s future environmental policies as well as ensuring they are properly enforced.

New evidence from a University of Chicago study found China was making progress in its “war on pollution,” improving air quality by as much as 42% in parts of the country.

What does it mean?

Pollution control was one of “three battles” identified by Xi in 2017 as a focus for his second term as China’s President, the other two being defusing financial risks and eradicating poverty.

Ma Jun, one of China’s best known environmentalists, told CNN the new ministry would help to strengthen pollution controls and build a “beautiful China.”

“Taking water pollution as an example, the original duties of groundwater, watershed management and agricultural pollution control fall under various ministries and commissions … resulting in responsibility overlaps and buck-passing,” he said.

“After the integration of these responsibilities, the long-term situation of the ‘Nine dragons governing the water collectively’ will end,” he said, using a Chinese saying.

With the reorganization, China’s government will also take concrete steps to address the second of Xi’s three battles — growing concerns around financial risk and bad debt endangering the Chinese economy.

In May 2017, China’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s amid concerns over their debt levels, which rose to about 170% of GDP in the previous year. Seven months later, insurance giant Anbang was seized by the government, ostensibly due to concerns over its billion-dollar spending sprees outside China.

A new Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will be created by combining two former regulators, while the People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank — will be given additional regulatory powers.

According to party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the changes are designed to supervise China’s growing financial industries to avoid “financial risks” and protect consumer rights.

What does it mean?

The Chinese government and Xi himself have placed a huge emphasis on shoring up the country’s economy to avoid collapse or recession.

Shi Dalong, researcher with Suning Financial Services, said in a report the past supervision of Chinese banks and financial services hadn’t been smooth.

But there could be a risks going forward as the new commission and Xi ally Liu He work to tighten regulations, Tan Kong Yam, Economics professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told CNN.

“(In the past) there have been periods where they tighten credit and it lead to slower growth, so they had to relax somewhat. It’s a very fine balance between disciplining the system … and overliberalizing it,” he said.

Tan said there were also likely to be complaints from state-owned enterprises and banks as they found it increasingly difficult to get easy credit and loans to expand.

A new international development cooperation agency will be set up to help coordinate China’s aid across the world, according to state broadcaster Xinhua.

It will report directly to the State Council, China’s cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang. The aim is to enhance China’s international credentials as a “major country,” according to state media.

Previously China had no dedicated agency devoted to foreign aid, despite giving tens of billions of dollars in overseas assistance since 2000. There is little transparency over how China’s aid is spent, however, or how much is investment and loans compared to actual assistance.

What does it mean?

China has an increasingly ambitious foreign policy, including its huge Belt and Road trade and investment program, and is shaking up its foreign ministry as US global influence wanes under President Donald Trump.

Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister and director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, told CNN previously Beijing had provided aid in a “heavy-handed manner.”

“I think they will shift to a profile in overseas development that will resemble that of OECD countries,” he said.

“They’ve been studying it for some time and I think (the new agency) means aid will be more directly related to the social and economic needs of the state. Fewer big political or vanity projects and fewer examples of a Chinese-built road to a Chinese port to a Chinese mine.”

It was the agency that implemented China’s infamous one-child policy with an iron fist from its creation in 1981 until government control was relaxed in 2015.

Now the Chinese government has announced the Family Planning Commission will be dismantled as the administration moves away from population control.

What does it mean?

China’s birth rate dropped in 2017, down 630,000 compared to the previous year, despite the government announcing two years ago Chinese couples were officially allowed to have a second child.

The removal of the Family Planning Commission was both “important and symbolic,” Yi Fuxian, scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “A Big Country in an Empty Nest” told CNN.

“With the enforcer of family planning population policy retiring from the historical stage, China has completed a u-turn in the national population policy,” he said.

“I believe it’s the end of an old era and start of a new era for population policy — respect for life, protection of human rights, regard population as wealth rather than waste, and treat people as human beings rather than trash.”

[usviraltrends-blog]

New Post has been published on https://usviraltrends.com/xi-jinping-is-making-sweeping-changes-to-how-chinas-government-is-run-50/

Xi Jinping is making sweeping changes to how China's government is run

From a powerful new financial regulator to a super ministry to deal with the environment, wide-reaching changes to the way China is governed were passed by the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, on Saturday.

Experts said the sweeping reforms were some of the largest since the end of the Mao Zedong era in the 1970s.

“Clearly Xi is shoring up his power, but I would suggest what China also wants to do more than anything else is define a mode of government which is not liberal and at the same time … is predictable, reliable, which is safe for businesses to invest in,” Rana Mitter, director of the University China Center at Oxford, told CNN.

According to state media, under the new plan the number of ministerial-level bodies will be reduced by eight to make the government “better-structured (and) more efficient.”

However, Mitter said the entire Chinese power structure has effectively been reshaped around Xi’s priorities, including cracking down on corruption, shoring up the economy and environmental protection.

Here are five of the most significant changes and what they mean for China.

China is planning to formalize the rules for its new anti-corruption agency, the National Supervisory Commission or NSC.

It’s the latest stage of Xi’s ruthless campaign against corruption in China, which forced out multiple high-level party leaders and sent thousands of other officials to jail.

The new commission has long been teased in official media and its powers are expected to extend outside the Communist Party and the military to the rest of the government.

What does it mean?

In a December report examining the framework of the new commission, Amnesty International said it was concerned the body’s “far-reaching powers” could significantly infringe on Chinese citizens’ human rights.

It is expected to run parallel to China’s judiciary, effectively putting it alongside, if not above, courts and prosecutors. A Brookings Institute analysis of the new laws said citizens accused of corruption would have “little or no legal recourse” to challenge the body.

Jiangnan Zhu, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s politics department, said the new commission would have agencies at national, provincial, prefectural and county levels, giving it countrywide reach.

“It will be the highest state organ of supervision … It will help solidify the Chinese Communist Party’s hold of the Chinese government and discipline a wider array of people who engage in public sectors,” she said.

China is creating an environmental protection super ministry to tackle the growing problem of pollution in its fast-growing economy, the government announced Tuesday.

Air pollution killed more than 1.1 million people in China in 2015, the most in the world, according to a study published by the US-based Health Effects Institute.

Replacing the Ministry for Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Ecological Environment will set China’s future environmental policies as well as ensuring they are properly enforced.

New evidence from a University of Chicago study found China was making progress in its “war on pollution,” improving air quality by as much as 42% in parts of the country.

What does it mean?

Pollution control was one of “three battles” identified by Xi in 2017 as a focus for his second term as China’s President, the other two being defusing financial risks and eradicating poverty.

Ma Jun, one of China’s best known environmentalists, told CNN the new ministry would help to strengthen pollution controls and build a “beautiful China.”

“Taking water pollution as an example, the original duties of groundwater, watershed management and agricultural pollution control fall under various ministries and commissions … resulting in responsibility overlaps and buck-passing,” he said.

“After the integration of these responsibilities, the long-term situation of the ‘Nine dragons governing the water collectively’ will end,” he said, using a Chinese saying.

With the reorganization, China’s government will also take concrete steps to address the second of Xi’s three battles — growing concerns around financial risk and bad debt endangering the Chinese economy.

In May 2017, China’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s amid concerns over their debt levels, which rose to about 170% of GDP in the previous year. Seven months later, insurance giant Anbang was seized by the government, ostensibly due to concerns over its billion-dollar spending sprees outside China.

A new Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will be created by combining two former regulators, while the People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank — will be given additional regulatory powers.

According to party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the changes are designed to supervise China’s growing financial industries to avoid “financial risks” and protect consumer rights.

What does it mean?

The Chinese government and Xi himself have placed a huge emphasis on shoring up the country’s economy to avoid collapse or recession.

Shi Dalong, researcher with Suning Financial Services, said in a report the past supervision of Chinese banks and financial services hadn’t been smooth.

But there could be a risks going forward as the new commission and Xi ally Liu He work to tighten regulations, Tan Kong Yam, Economics professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told CNN.

“(In the past) there have been periods where they tighten credit and it lead to slower growth, so they had to relax somewhat. It’s a very fine balance between disciplining the system … and overliberalizing it,” he said.

Tan said there were also likely to be complaints from state-owned enterprises and banks as they found it increasingly difficult to get easy credit and loans to expand.

A new international development cooperation agency will be set up to help coordinate China’s aid across the world, according to state broadcaster Xinhua.

It will report directly to the State Council, China’s cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang. The aim is to enhance China’s international credentials as a “major country,” according to state media.

Previously China had no dedicated agency devoted to foreign aid, despite giving tens of billions of dollars in overseas assistance since 2000. There is little transparency over how China’s aid is spent, however, or how much is investment and loans compared to actual assistance.

What does it mean?

China has an increasingly ambitious foreign policy, including its huge Belt and Road trade and investment program, and is shaking up its foreign ministry as US global influence wanes under President Donald Trump.

Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister and director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, told CNN previously Beijing had provided aid in a “heavy-handed manner.”

“I think they will shift to a profile in overseas development that will resemble that of OECD countries,” he said.

“They’ve been studying it for some time and I think (the new agency) means aid will be more directly related to the social and economic needs of the state. Fewer big political or vanity projects and fewer examples of a Chinese-built road to a Chinese port to a Chinese mine.”

It was the agency that implemented China’s infamous one-child policy with an iron fist from its creation in 1981 until government control was relaxed in 2015.

Now the Chinese government has announced the Family Planning Commission will be dismantled as the administration moves away from population control.

What does it mean?

China’s birth rate dropped in 2017, down 630,000 compared to the previous year, despite the government announcing two years ago Chinese couples were officially allowed to have a second child.

The removal of the Family Planning Commission was both “important and symbolic,” Yi Fuxian, scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “A Big Country in an Empty Nest” told CNN.

“With the enforcer of family planning population policy retiring from the historical stage, China has completed a u-turn in the national population policy,” he said.

“I believe it’s the end of an old era and start of a new era for population policy — respect for life, protection of human rights, regard population as wealth rather than waste, and treat people as human beings rather than trash.”

[usviraltrends-blog]

New Post has been published on https://usviraltrends.com/xi-jinping-is-making-sweeping-changes-to-how-chinas-government-is-run-49/

Xi Jinping is making sweeping changes to how China's government is run

From a powerful new financial regulator to a super ministry to deal with the environment, wide-reaching changes to the way China is governed were passed by the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, on Saturday.

Experts said the sweeping reforms were some of the largest since the end of the Mao Zedong era in the 1970s.

“Clearly Xi is shoring up his power, but I would suggest what China also wants to do more than anything else is define a mode of government which is not liberal and at the same time … is predictable, reliable, which is safe for businesses to invest in,” Rana Mitter, director of the University China Center at Oxford, told CNN.

According to state media, under the new plan the number of ministerial-level bodies will be reduced by eight to make the government “better-structured (and) more efficient.”

However, Mitter said the entire Chinese power structure has effectively been reshaped around Xi’s priorities, including cracking down on corruption, shoring up the economy and environmental protection.

Here are five of the most significant changes and what they mean for China.

China is planning to formalize the rules for its new anti-corruption agency, the National Supervisory Commission or NSC.

It’s the latest stage of Xi’s ruthless campaign against corruption in China, which forced out multiple high-level party leaders and sent thousands of other officials to jail.

The new commission has long been teased in official media and its powers are expected to extend outside the Communist Party and the military to the rest of the government.

What does it mean?

In a December report examining the framework of the new commission, Amnesty International said it was concerned the body’s “far-reaching powers” could significantly infringe on Chinese citizens’ human rights.

It is expected to run parallel to China’s judiciary, effectively putting it alongside, if not above, courts and prosecutors. A Brookings Institute analysis of the new laws said citizens accused of corruption would have “little or no legal recourse” to challenge the body.

Jiangnan Zhu, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s politics department, said the new commission would have agencies at national, provincial, prefectural and county levels, giving it countrywide reach.

“It will be the highest state organ of supervision … It will help solidify the Chinese Communist Party’s hold of the Chinese government and discipline a wider array of people who engage in public sectors,” she said.

China is creating an environmental protection super ministry to tackle the growing problem of pollution in its fast-growing economy, the government announced Tuesday.

Air pollution killed more than 1.1 million people in China in 2015, the most in the world, according to a study published by the US-based Health Effects Institute.

Replacing the Ministry for Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Ecological Environment will set China’s future environmental policies as well as ensuring they are properly enforced.

New evidence from a University of Chicago study found China was making progress in its “war on pollution,” improving air quality by as much as 42% in parts of the country.

What does it mean?

Pollution control was one of “three battles” identified by Xi in 2017 as a focus for his second term as China’s President, the other two being defusing financial risks and eradicating poverty.

Ma Jun, one of China’s best known environmentalists, told CNN the new ministry would help to strengthen pollution controls and build a “beautiful China.”

“Taking water pollution as an example, the original duties of groundwater, watershed management and agricultural pollution control fall under various ministries and commissions … resulting in responsibility overlaps and buck-passing,” he said.

“After the integration of these responsibilities, the long-term situation of the ‘Nine dragons governing the water collectively’ will end,” he said, using a Chinese saying.

With the reorganization, China’s government will also take concrete steps to address the second of Xi’s three battles — growing concerns around financial risk and bad debt endangering the Chinese economy.

In May 2017, China’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s amid concerns over their debt levels, which rose to about 170% of GDP in the previous year. Seven months later, insurance giant Anbang was seized by the government, ostensibly due to concerns over its billion-dollar spending sprees outside China.

A new Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will be created by combining two former regulators, while the People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank — will be given additional regulatory powers.

According to party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the changes are designed to supervise China’s growing financial industries to avoid “financial risks” and protect consumer rights.

What does it mean?

The Chinese government and Xi himself have placed a huge emphasis on shoring up the country’s economy to avoid collapse or recession.

Shi Dalong, researcher with Suning Financial Services, said in a report the past supervision of Chinese banks and financial services hadn’t been smooth.

But there could be a risks going forward as the new commission and Xi ally Liu He work to tighten regulations, Tan Kong Yam, Economics professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told CNN.

“(In the past) there have been periods where they tighten credit and it lead to slower growth, so they had to relax somewhat. It’s a very fine balance between disciplining the system … and overliberalizing it,” he said.

Tan said there were also likely to be complaints from state-owned enterprises and banks as they found it increasingly difficult to get easy credit and loans to expand.

A new international development cooperation agency will be set up to help coordinate China’s aid across the world, according to state broadcaster Xinhua.

It will report directly to the State Council, China’s cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang. The aim is to enhance China’s international credentials as a “major country,” according to state media.

Previously China had no dedicated agency devoted to foreign aid, despite giving tens of billions of dollars in overseas assistance since 2000. There is little transparency over how China’s aid is spent, however, or how much is investment and loans compared to actual assistance.

What does it mean?

China has an increasingly ambitious foreign policy, including its huge Belt and Road trade and investment program, and is shaking up its foreign ministry as US global influence wanes under President Donald Trump.

Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister and director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, told CNN previously Beijing had provided aid in a “heavy-handed manner.”

“I think they will shift to a profile in overseas development that will resemble that of OECD countries,” he said.

“They’ve been studying it for some time and I think (the new agency) means aid will be more directly related to the social and economic needs of the state. Fewer big political or vanity projects and fewer examples of a Chinese-built road to a Chinese port to a Chinese mine.”

It was the agency that implemented China’s infamous one-child policy with an iron fist from its creation in 1981 until government control was relaxed in 2015.

Now the Chinese government has announced the Family Planning Commission will be dismantled as the administration moves away from population control.

What does it mean?

China’s birth rate dropped in 2017, down 630,000 compared to the previous year, despite the government announcing two years ago Chinese couples were officially allowed to have a second child.

The removal of the Family Planning Commission was both “important and symbolic,” Yi Fuxian, scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “A Big Country in an Empty Nest” told CNN.

“With the enforcer of family planning population policy retiring from the historical stage, China has completed a u-turn in the national population policy,” he said.

“I believe it’s the end of an old era and start of a new era for population policy — respect for life, protection of human rights, regard population as wealth rather than waste, and treat people as human beings rather than trash.”

[usviraltrends-blog]

New Post has been published on https://usviraltrends.com/xi-jinping-is-making-sweeping-changes-to-how-chinas-government-is-run-48/

Xi Jinping is making sweeping changes to how China's government is run

From a powerful new financial regulator to a super ministry to deal with the environment, wide-reaching changes to the way China is governed were passed by the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, on Saturday.

Experts said the sweeping reforms were some of the largest since the end of the Mao Zedong era in the 1970s.

“Clearly Xi is shoring up his power, but I would suggest what China also wants to do more than anything else is define a mode of government which is not liberal and at the same time … is predictable, reliable, which is safe for businesses to invest in,” Rana Mitter, director of the University China Center at Oxford, told CNN.

According to state media, under the new plan the number of ministerial-level bodies will be reduced by eight to make the government “better-structured (and) more efficient.”

However, Mitter said the entire Chinese power structure has effectively been reshaped around Xi’s priorities, including cracking down on corruption, shoring up the economy and environmental protection.

Here are five of the most significant changes and what they mean for China.

China is planning to formalize the rules for its new anti-corruption agency, the National Supervisory Commission or NSC.

It’s the latest stage of Xi’s ruthless campaign against corruption in China, which forced out multiple high-level party leaders and sent thousands of other officials to jail.

The new commission has long been teased in official media and its powers are expected to extend outside the Communist Party and the military to the rest of the government.

What does it mean?

In a December report examining the framework of the new commission, Amnesty International said it was concerned the body’s “far-reaching powers” could significantly infringe on Chinese citizens’ human rights.

It is expected to run parallel to China’s judiciary, effectively putting it alongside, if not above, courts and prosecutors. A Brookings Institute analysis of the new laws said citizens accused of corruption would have “little or no legal recourse” to challenge the body.

Jiangnan Zhu, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s politics department, said the new commission would have agencies at national, provincial, prefectural and county levels, giving it countrywide reach.

“It will be the highest state organ of supervision … It will help solidify the Chinese Communist Party’s hold of the Chinese government and discipline a wider array of people who engage in public sectors,” she said.

China is creating an environmental protection super ministry to tackle the growing problem of pollution in its fast-growing economy, the government announced Tuesday.

Air pollution killed more than 1.1 million people in China in 2015, the most in the world, according to a study published by the US-based Health Effects Institute.

Replacing the Ministry for Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Ecological Environment will set China’s future environmental policies as well as ensuring they are properly enforced.

New evidence from a University of Chicago study found China was making progress in its “war on pollution,” improving air quality by as much as 42% in parts of the country.

What does it mean?

Pollution control was one of “three battles” identified by Xi in 2017 as a focus for his second term as China’s President, the other two being defusing financial risks and eradicating poverty.

Ma Jun, one of China’s best known environmentalists, told CNN the new ministry would help to strengthen pollution controls and build a “beautiful China.”

“Taking water pollution as an example, the original duties of groundwater, watershed management and agricultural pollution control fall under various ministries and commissions … resulting in responsibility overlaps and buck-passing,” he said.

“After the integration of these responsibilities, the long-term situation of the ‘Nine dragons governing the water collectively’ will end,” he said, using a Chinese saying.

With the reorganization, China’s government will also take concrete steps to address the second of Xi’s three battles — growing concerns around financial risk and bad debt endangering the Chinese economy.

In May 2017, China’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s amid concerns over their debt levels, which rose to about 170% of GDP in the previous year. Seven months later, insurance giant Anbang was seized by the government, ostensibly due to concerns over its billion-dollar spending sprees outside China.

A new Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will be created by combining two former regulators, while the People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank — will be given additional regulatory powers.

According to party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the changes are designed to supervise China’s growing financial industries to avoid “financial risks” and protect consumer rights.

What does it mean?

The Chinese government and Xi himself have placed a huge emphasis on shoring up the country’s economy to avoid collapse or recession.

Shi Dalong, researcher with Suning Financial Services, said in a report the past supervision of Chinese banks and financial services hadn’t been smooth.

But there could be a risks going forward as the new commission and Xi ally Liu He work to tighten regulations, Tan Kong Yam, Economics professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told CNN.

“(In the past) there have been periods where they tighten credit and it lead to slower growth, so they had to relax somewhat. It’s a very fine balance between disciplining the system … and overliberalizing it,” he said.

Tan said there were also likely to be complaints from state-owned enterprises and banks as they found it increasingly difficult to get easy credit and loans to expand.

A new international development cooperation agency will be set up to help coordinate China’s aid across the world, according to state broadcaster Xinhua.

It will report directly to the State Council, China’s cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang. The aim is to enhance China’s international credentials as a “major country,” according to state media.

Previously China had no dedicated agency devoted to foreign aid, despite giving tens of billions of dollars in overseas assistance since 2000. There is little transparency over how China’s aid is spent, however, or how much is investment and loans compared to actual assistance.

What does it mean?

China has an increasingly ambitious foreign policy, including its huge Belt and Road trade and investment program, and is shaking up its foreign ministry as US global influence wanes under President Donald Trump.

Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister and director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, told CNN previously Beijing had provided aid in a “heavy-handed manner.”

“I think they will shift to a profile in overseas development that will resemble that of OECD countries,” he said.

“They’ve been studying it for some time and I think (the new agency) means aid will be more directly related to the social and economic needs of the state. Fewer big political or vanity projects and fewer examples of a Chinese-built road to a Chinese port to a Chinese mine.”

It was the agency that implemented China’s infamous one-child policy with an iron fist from its creation in 1981 until government control was relaxed in 2015.

Now the Chinese government has announced the Family Planning Commission will be dismantled as the administration moves away from population control.

What does it mean?

China’s birth rate dropped in 2017, down 630,000 compared to the previous year, despite the government announcing two years ago Chinese couples were officially allowed to have a second child.

The removal of the Family Planning Commission was both “important and symbolic,” Yi Fuxian, scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “A Big Country in an Empty Nest” told CNN.

“With the enforcer of family planning population policy retiring from the historical stage, China has completed a u-turn in the national population policy,” he said.

“I believe it’s the end of an old era and start of a new era for population policy — respect for life, protection of human rights, regard population as wealth rather than waste, and treat people as human beings rather than trash.”

[usviraltrends-blog]

New Post has been published on https://usviraltrends.com/xi-jinping-is-making-sweeping-changes-to-how-chinas-government-is-run-46/

Xi Jinping is making sweeping changes to how China's government is run

From a powerful new financial regulator to a super ministry to deal with the environment, wide-reaching changes to the way China is governed were passed by the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, on Saturday.

Experts said the sweeping reforms were some of the largest since the end of the Mao Zedong era in the 1970s.

“Clearly Xi is shoring up his power, but I would suggest what China also wants to do more than anything else is define a mode of government which is not liberal and at the same time … is predictable, reliable, which is safe for businesses to invest in,” Rana Mitter, director of the University China Center at Oxford, told CNN.

According to state media, under the new plan the number of ministerial-level bodies will be reduced by eight to make the government “better-structured (and) more efficient.”

However, Mitter said the entire Chinese power structure has effectively been reshaped around Xi’s priorities, including cracking down on corruption, shoring up the economy and environmental protection.

Here are five of the most significant changes and what they mean for China.

China is planning to formalize the rules for its new anti-corruption agency, the National Supervisory Commission or NSC.

It’s the latest stage of Xi’s ruthless campaign against corruption in China, which forced out multiple high-level party leaders and sent thousands of other officials to jail.

The new commission has long been teased in official media and its powers are expected to extend outside the Communist Party and the military to the rest of the government.

What does it mean?

In a December report examining the framework of the new commission, Amnesty International said it was concerned the body’s “far-reaching powers” could significantly infringe on Chinese citizens’ human rights.

It is expected to run parallel to China’s judiciary, effectively putting it alongside, if not above, courts and prosecutors. A Brookings Institute analysis of the new laws said citizens accused of corruption would have “little or no legal recourse” to challenge the body.

Jiangnan Zhu, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s politics department, said the new commission would have agencies at national, provincial, prefectural and county levels, giving it countrywide reach.

“It will be the highest state organ of supervision … It will help solidify the Chinese Communist Party’s hold of the Chinese government and discipline a wider array of people who engage in public sectors,” she said.

China is creating an environmental protection super ministry to tackle the growing problem of pollution in its fast-growing economy, the government announced Tuesday.

Air pollution killed more than 1.1 million people in China in 2015, the most in the world, according to a study published by the US-based Health Effects Institute.

Replacing the Ministry for Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Ecological Environment will set China’s future environmental policies as well as ensuring they are properly enforced.

New evidence from a University of Chicago study found China was making progress in its “war on pollution,” improving air quality by as much as 42% in parts of the country.

What does it mean?

Pollution control was one of “three battles” identified by Xi in 2017 as a focus for his second term as China’s President, the other two being defusing financial risks and eradicating poverty.

Ma Jun, one of China’s best known environmentalists, told CNN the new ministry would help to strengthen pollution controls and build a “beautiful China.”

“Taking water pollution as an example, the original duties of groundwater, watershed management and agricultural pollution control fall under various ministries and commissions … resulting in responsibility overlaps and buck-passing,” he said.

“After the integration of these responsibilities, the long-term situation of the ‘Nine dragons governing the water collectively’ will end,” he said, using a Chinese saying.

With the reorganization, China’s government will also take concrete steps to address the second of Xi’s three battles — growing concerns around financial risk and bad debt endangering the Chinese economy.

In May 2017, China’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s amid concerns over their debt levels, which rose to about 170% of GDP in the previous year. Seven months later, insurance giant Anbang was seized by the government, ostensibly due to concerns over its billion-dollar spending sprees outside China.

A new Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will be created by combining two former regulators, while the People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank — will be given additional regulatory powers.

According to party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the changes are designed to supervise China’s growing financial industries to avoid “financial risks” and protect consumer rights.

What does it mean?

The Chinese government and Xi himself have placed a huge emphasis on shoring up the country’s economy to avoid collapse or recession.

Shi Dalong, researcher with Suning Financial Services, said in a report the past supervision of Chinese banks and financial services hadn’t been smooth.

But there could be a risks going forward as the new commission and Xi ally Liu He work to tighten regulations, Tan Kong Yam, Economics professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told CNN.

“(In the past) there have been periods where they tighten credit and it lead to slower growth, so they had to relax somewhat. It’s a very fine balance between disciplining the system … and overliberalizing it,” he said.

Tan said there were also likely to be complaints from state-owned enterprises and banks as they found it increasingly difficult to get easy credit and loans to expand.

A new international development cooperation agency will be set up to help coordinate China’s aid across the world, according to state broadcaster Xinhua.

It will report directly to the State Council, China’s cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang. The aim is to enhance China’s international credentials as a “major country,” according to state media.

Previously China had no dedicated agency devoted to foreign aid, despite giving tens of billions of dollars in overseas assistance since 2000. There is little transparency over how China’s aid is spent, however, or how much is investment and loans compared to actual assistance.

What does it mean?

China has an increasingly ambitious foreign policy, including its huge Belt and Road trade and investment program, and is shaking up its foreign ministry as US global influence wanes under President Donald Trump.

Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister and director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, told CNN previously Beijing had provided aid in a “heavy-handed manner.”

“I think they will shift to a profile in overseas development that will resemble that of OECD countries,” he said.

“They’ve been studying it for some time and I think (the new agency) means aid will be more directly related to the social and economic needs of the state. Fewer big political or vanity projects and fewer examples of a Chinese-built road to a Chinese port to a Chinese mine.”

It was the agency that implemented China’s infamous one-child policy with an iron fist from its creation in 1981 until government control was relaxed in 2015.

Now the Chinese government has announced the Family Planning Commission will be dismantled as the administration moves away from population control.

What does it mean?

China’s birth rate dropped in 2017, down 630,000 compared to the previous year, despite the government announcing two years ago Chinese couples were officially allowed to have a second child.

The removal of the Family Planning Commission was both “important and symbolic,” Yi Fuxian, scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “A Big Country in an Empty Nest” told CNN.

“With the enforcer of family planning population policy retiring from the historical stage, China has completed a u-turn in the national population policy,” he said.

“I believe it’s the end of an old era and start of a new era for population policy — respect for life, protection of human rights, regard population as wealth rather than waste, and treat people as human beings rather than trash.”

[usviraltrends-blog]

New Post has been published on https://usviraltrends.com/xi-jinping-is-making-sweeping-changes-to-how-chinas-government-is-run-45/

Xi Jinping is making sweeping changes to how China's government is run

From a powerful new financial regulator to a super ministry to deal with the environment, wide-reaching changes to the way China is governed were passed by the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, on Saturday.

Experts said the sweeping reforms were some of the largest since the end of the Mao Zedong era in the 1970s.

“Clearly Xi is shoring up his power, but I would suggest what China also wants to do more than anything else is define a mode of government which is not liberal and at the same time … is predictable, reliable, which is safe for businesses to invest in,” Rana Mitter, director of the University China Center at Oxford, told CNN.

According to state media, under the new plan the number of ministerial-level bodies will be reduced by eight to make the government “better-structured (and) more efficient.”

However, Mitter said the entire Chinese power structure has effectively been reshaped around Xi’s priorities, including cracking down on corruption, shoring up the economy and environmental protection.

Here are five of the most significant changes and what they mean for China.

China is planning to formalize the rules for its new anti-corruption agency, the National Supervisory Commission or NSC.

It’s the latest stage of Xi’s ruthless campaign against corruption in China, which forced out multiple high-level party leaders and sent thousands of other officials to jail.

The new commission has long been teased in official media and its powers are expected to extend outside the Communist Party and the military to the rest of the government.

What does it mean?

In a December report examining the framework of the new commission, Amnesty International said it was concerned the body’s “far-reaching powers” could significantly infringe on Chinese citizens’ human rights.

It is expected to run parallel to China’s judiciary, effectively putting it alongside, if not above, courts and prosecutors. A Brookings Institute analysis of the new laws said citizens accused of corruption would have “little or no legal recourse” to challenge the body.

Jiangnan Zhu, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s politics department, said the new commission would have agencies at national, provincial, prefectural and county levels, giving it countrywide reach.

“It will be the highest state organ of supervision … It will help solidify the Chinese Communist Party’s hold of the Chinese government and discipline a wider array of people who engage in public sectors,” she said.

China is creating an environmental protection super ministry to tackle the growing problem of pollution in its fast-growing economy, the government announced Tuesday.

Air pollution killed more than 1.1 million people in China in 2015, the most in the world, according to a study published by the US-based Health Effects Institute.

Replacing the Ministry for Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Ecological Environment will set China’s future environmental policies as well as ensuring they are properly enforced.

New evidence from a University of Chicago study found China was making progress in its “war on pollution,” improving air quality by as much as 42% in parts of the country.

What does it mean?

Pollution control was one of “three battles” identified by Xi in 2017 as a focus for his second term as China’s President, the other two being defusing financial risks and eradicating poverty.

Ma Jun, one of China’s best known environmentalists, told CNN the new ministry would help to strengthen pollution controls and build a “beautiful China.”

“Taking water pollution as an example, the original duties of groundwater, watershed management and agricultural pollution control fall under various ministries and commissions … resulting in responsibility overlaps and buck-passing,” he said.

“After the integration of these responsibilities, the long-term situation of the ‘Nine dragons governing the water collectively’ will end,” he said, using a Chinese saying.

With the reorganization, China’s government will also take concrete steps to address the second of Xi’s three battles — growing concerns around financial risk and bad debt endangering the Chinese economy.

In May 2017, China’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s amid concerns over their debt levels, which rose to about 170% of GDP in the previous year. Seven months later, insurance giant Anbang was seized by the government, ostensibly due to concerns over its billion-dollar spending sprees outside China.

A new Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will be created by combining two former regulators, while the People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank — will be given additional regulatory powers.

According to party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the changes are designed to supervise China’s growing financial industries to avoid “financial risks” and protect consumer rights.

What does it mean?

The Chinese government and Xi himself have placed a huge emphasis on shoring up the country’s economy to avoid collapse or recession.

Shi Dalong, researcher with Suning Financial Services, said in a report the past supervision of Chinese banks and financial services hadn’t been smooth.

But there could be a risks going forward as the new commission and Xi ally Liu He work to tighten regulations, Tan Kong Yam, Economics professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told CNN.

“(In the past) there have been periods where they tighten credit and it lead to slower growth, so they had to relax somewhat. It’s a very fine balance between disciplining the system … and overliberalizing it,” he said.

Tan said there were also likely to be complaints from state-owned enterprises and banks as they found it increasingly difficult to get easy credit and loans to expand.

A new international development cooperation agency will be set up to help coordinate China’s aid across the world, according to state broadcaster Xinhua.

It will report directly to the State Council, China’s cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang. The aim is to enhance China’s international credentials as a “major country,” according to state media.

Previously China had no dedicated agency devoted to foreign aid, despite giving tens of billions of dollars in overseas assistance since 2000. There is little transparency over how China’s aid is spent, however, or how much is investment and loans compared to actual assistance.

What does it mean?

China has an increasingly ambitious foreign policy, including its huge Belt and Road trade and investment program, and is shaking up its foreign ministry as US global influence wanes under President Donald Trump.

Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister and director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, told CNN previously Beijing had provided aid in a “heavy-handed manner.”

“I think they will shift to a profile in overseas development that will resemble that of OECD countries,” he said.

“They’ve been studying it for some time and I think (the new agency) means aid will be more directly related to the social and economic needs of the state. Fewer big political or vanity projects and fewer examples of a Chinese-built road to a Chinese port to a Chinese mine.”

It was the agency that implemented China’s infamous one-child policy with an iron fist from its creation in 1981 until government control was relaxed in 2015.

Now the Chinese government has announced the Family Planning Commission will be dismantled as the administration moves away from population control.

What does it mean?

China’s birth rate dropped in 2017, down 630,000 compared to the previous year, despite the government announcing two years ago Chinese couples were officially allowed to have a second child.

The removal of the Family Planning Commission was both “important and symbolic,” Yi Fuxian, scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “A Big Country in an Empty Nest” told CNN.

“With the enforcer of family planning population policy retiring from the historical stage, China has completed a u-turn in the national population policy,” he said.

“I believe it’s the end of an old era and start of a new era for population policy — respect for life, protection of human rights, regard population as wealth rather than waste, and treat people as human beings rather than trash.”

[usviraltrends-blog]

New Post has been published on https://usviraltrends.com/xi-jinping-is-making-sweeping-changes-to-how-chinas-government-is-run-44/

Xi Jinping is making sweeping changes to how China's government is run

From a powerful new financial regulator to a super ministry to deal with the environment, wide-reaching changes to the way China is governed were passed by the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, on Saturday.

Experts said the sweeping reforms were some of the largest since the end of the Mao Zedong era in the 1970s.

“Clearly Xi is shoring up his power, but I would suggest what China also wants to do more than anything else is define a mode of government which is not liberal and at the same time … is predictable, reliable, which is safe for businesses to invest in,” Rana Mitter, director of the University China Center at Oxford, told CNN.

According to state media, under the new plan the number of ministerial-level bodies will be reduced by eight to make the government “better-structured (and) more efficient.”

However, Mitter said the entire Chinese power structure has effectively been reshaped around Xi’s priorities, including cracking down on corruption, shoring up the economy and environmental protection.

Here are five of the most significant changes and what they mean for China.

China is planning to formalize the rules for its new anti-corruption agency, the National Supervisory Commission or NSC.

It’s the latest stage of Xi’s ruthless campaign against corruption in China, which forced out multiple high-level party leaders and sent thousands of other officials to jail.

The new commission has long been teased in official media and its powers are expected to extend outside the Communist Party and the military to the rest of the government.

What does it mean?

In a December report examining the framework of the new commission, Amnesty International said it was concerned the body’s “far-reaching powers” could significantly infringe on Chinese citizens’ human rights.

It is expected to run parallel to China’s judiciary, effectively putting it alongside, if not above, courts and prosecutors. A Brookings Institute analysis of the new laws said citizens accused of corruption would have “little or no legal recourse” to challenge the body.

Jiangnan Zhu, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s politics department, said the new commission would have agencies at national, provincial, prefectural and county levels, giving it countrywide reach.

“It will be the highest state organ of supervision … It will help solidify the Chinese Communist Party’s hold of the Chinese government and discipline a wider array of people who engage in public sectors,” she said.

China is creating an environmental protection super ministry to tackle the growing problem of pollution in its fast-growing economy, the government announced Tuesday.

Air pollution killed more than 1.1 million people in China in 2015, the most in the world, according to a study published by the US-based Health Effects Institute.

Replacing the Ministry for Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Ecological Environment will set China’s future environmental policies as well as ensuring they are properly enforced.

New evidence from a University of Chicago study found China was making progress in its “war on pollution,” improving air quality by as much as 42% in parts of the country.

What does it mean?

Pollution control was one of “three battles” identified by Xi in 2017 as a focus for his second term as China’s President, the other two being defusing financial risks and eradicating poverty.

Ma Jun, one of China’s best known environmentalists, told CNN the new ministry would help to strengthen pollution controls and build a “beautiful China.”

“Taking water pollution as an example, the original duties of groundwater, watershed management and agricultural pollution control fall under various ministries and commissions … resulting in responsibility overlaps and buck-passing,” he said.

“After the integration of these responsibilities, the long-term situation of the ‘Nine dragons governing the water collectively’ will end,” he said, using a Chinese saying.

With the reorganization, China’s government will also take concrete steps to address the second of Xi’s three battles — growing concerns around financial risk and bad debt endangering the Chinese economy.

In May 2017, China’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s amid concerns over their debt levels, which rose to about 170% of GDP in the previous year. Seven months later, insurance giant Anbang was seized by the government, ostensibly due to concerns over its billion-dollar spending sprees outside China.

A new Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will be created by combining two former regulators, while the People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank — will be given additional regulatory powers.

According to party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the changes are designed to supervise China’s growing financial industries to avoid “financial risks” and protect consumer rights.

What does it mean?

The Chinese government and Xi himself have placed a huge emphasis on shoring up the country’s economy to avoid collapse or recession.

Shi Dalong, researcher with Suning Financial Services, said in a report the past supervision of Chinese banks and financial services hadn’t been smooth.

But there could be a risks going forward as the new commission and Xi ally Liu He work to tighten regulations, Tan Kong Yam, Economics professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told CNN.

“(In the past) there have been periods where they tighten credit and it lead to slower growth, so they had to relax somewhat. It’s a very fine balance between disciplining the system … and overliberalizing it,” he said.

Tan said there were also likely to be complaints from state-owned enterprises and banks as they found it increasingly difficult to get easy credit and loans to expand.

A new international development cooperation agency will be set up to help coordinate China’s aid across the world, according to state broadcaster Xinhua.

It will report directly to the State Council, China’s cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang. The aim is to enhance China’s international credentials as a “major country,” according to state media.

Previously China had no dedicated agency devoted to foreign aid, despite giving tens of billions of dollars in overseas assistance since 2000. There is little transparency over how China’s aid is spent, however, or how much is investment and loans compared to actual assistance.

What does it mean?

China has an increasingly ambitious foreign policy, including its huge Belt and Road trade and investment program, and is shaking up its foreign ministry as US global influence wanes under President Donald Trump.

Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister and director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, told CNN previously Beijing had provided aid in a “heavy-handed manner.”

“I think they will shift to a profile in overseas development that will resemble that of OECD countries,” he said.

“They’ve been studying it for some time and I think (the new agency) means aid will be more directly related to the social and economic needs of the state. Fewer big political or vanity projects and fewer examples of a Chinese-built road to a Chinese port to a Chinese mine.”

It was the agency that implemented China’s infamous one-child policy with an iron fist from its creation in 1981 until government control was relaxed in 2015.

Now the Chinese government has announced the Family Planning Commission will be dismantled as the administration moves away from population control.

What does it mean?

China’s birth rate dropped in 2017, down 630,000 compared to the previous year, despite the government announcing two years ago Chinese couples were officially allowed to have a second child.

The removal of the Family Planning Commission was both “important and symbolic,” Yi Fuxian, scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “A Big Country in an Empty Nest” told CNN.

“With the enforcer of family planning population policy retiring from the historical stage, China has completed a u-turn in the national population policy,” he said.

“I believe it’s the end of an old era and start of a new era for population policy — respect for life, protection of human rights, regard population as wealth rather than waste, and treat people as human beings rather than trash.”

[usviraltrends-blog]

New Post has been published on https://usviraltrends.com/xi-jinping-is-making-sweeping-changes-to-how-chinas-government-is-run-43/

Xi Jinping is making sweeping changes to how China's government is run

From a powerful new financial regulator to a super ministry to deal with the environment, wide-reaching changes to the way China is governed were passed by the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, on Saturday.

Experts said the sweeping reforms were some of the largest since the end of the Mao Zedong era in the 1970s.

“Clearly Xi is shoring up his power, but I would suggest what China also wants to do more than anything else is define a mode of government which is not liberal and at the same time … is predictable, reliable, which is safe for businesses to invest in,” Rana Mitter, director of the University China Center at Oxford, told CNN.

According to state media, under the new plan the number of ministerial-level bodies will be reduced by eight to make the government “better-structured (and) more efficient.”

However, Mitter said the entire Chinese power structure has effectively been reshaped around Xi’s priorities, including cracking down on corruption, shoring up the economy and environmental protection.

Here are five of the most significant changes and what they mean for China.

China is planning to formalize the rules for its new anti-corruption agency, the National Supervisory Commission or NSC.

It’s the latest stage of Xi’s ruthless campaign against corruption in China, which forced out multiple high-level party leaders and sent thousands of other officials to jail.

The new commission has long been teased in official media and its powers are expected to extend outside the Communist Party and the military to the rest of the government.

What does it mean?

In a December report examining the framework of the new commission, Amnesty International said it was concerned the body’s “far-reaching powers” could significantly infringe on Chinese citizens’ human rights.

It is expected to run parallel to China’s judiciary, effectively putting it alongside, if not above, courts and prosecutors. A Brookings Institute analysis of the new laws said citizens accused of corruption would have “little or no legal recourse” to challenge the body.

Jiangnan Zhu, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s politics department, said the new commission would have agencies at national, provincial, prefectural and county levels, giving it countrywide reach.

“It will be the highest state organ of supervision … It will help solidify the Chinese Communist Party’s hold of the Chinese government and discipline a wider array of people who engage in public sectors,” she said.

China is creating an environmental protection super ministry to tackle the growing problem of pollution in its fast-growing economy, the government announced Tuesday.

Air pollution killed more than 1.1 million people in China in 2015, the most in the world, according to a study published by the US-based Health Effects Institute.

Replacing the Ministry for Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Ecological Environment will set China’s future environmental policies as well as ensuring they are properly enforced.

New evidence from a University of Chicago study found China was making progress in its “war on pollution,” improving air quality by as much as 42% in parts of the country.

What does it mean?

Pollution control was one of “three battles” identified by Xi in 2017 as a focus for his second term as China’s President, the other two being defusing financial risks and eradicating poverty.

Ma Jun, one of China’s best known environmentalists, told CNN the new ministry would help to strengthen pollution controls and build a “beautiful China.”

“Taking water pollution as an example, the original duties of groundwater, watershed management and agricultural pollution control fall under various ministries and commissions … resulting in responsibility overlaps and buck-passing,” he said.

“After the integration of these responsibilities, the long-term situation of the ‘Nine dragons governing the water collectively’ will end,” he said, using a Chinese saying.

With the reorganization, China’s government will also take concrete steps to address the second of Xi’s three battles — growing concerns around financial risk and bad debt endangering the Chinese economy.

In May 2017, China’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s amid concerns over their debt levels, which rose to about 170% of GDP in the previous year. Seven months later, insurance giant Anbang was seized by the government, ostensibly due to concerns over its billion-dollar spending sprees outside China.

A new Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will be created by combining two former regulators, while the People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank — will be given additional regulatory powers.

According to party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the changes are designed to supervise China’s growing financial industries to avoid “financial risks” and protect consumer rights.

What does it mean?

The Chinese government and Xi himself have placed a huge emphasis on shoring up the country’s economy to avoid collapse or recession.

Shi Dalong, researcher with Suning Financial Services, said in a report the past supervision of Chinese banks and financial services hadn’t been smooth.

But there could be a risks going forward as the new commission and Xi ally Liu He work to tighten regulations, Tan Kong Yam, Economics professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told CNN.

“(In the past) there have been periods where they tighten credit and it lead to slower growth, so they had to relax somewhat. It’s a very fine balance between disciplining the system … and overliberalizing it,” he said.

Tan said there were also likely to be complaints from state-owned enterprises and banks as they found it increasingly difficult to get easy credit and loans to expand.

A new international development cooperation agency will be set up to help coordinate China’s aid across the world, according to state broadcaster Xinhua.

It will report directly to the State Council, China’s cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang. The aim is to enhance China’s international credentials as a “major country,” according to state media.

Previously China had no dedicated agency devoted to foreign aid, despite giving tens of billions of dollars in overseas assistance since 2000. There is little transparency over how China’s aid is spent, however, or how much is investment and loans compared to actual assistance.

What does it mean?

China has an increasingly ambitious foreign policy, including its huge Belt and Road trade and investment program, and is shaking up its foreign ministry as US global influence wanes under President Donald Trump.

Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister and director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, told CNN previously Beijing had provided aid in a “heavy-handed manner.”

“I think they will shift to a profile in overseas development that will resemble that of OECD countries,” he said.

“They’ve been studying it for some time and I think (the new agency) means aid will be more directly related to the social and economic needs of the state. Fewer big political or vanity projects and fewer examples of a Chinese-built road to a Chinese port to a Chinese mine.”

It was the agency that implemented China’s infamous one-child policy with an iron fist from its creation in 1981 until government control was relaxed in 2015.

Now the Chinese government has announced the Family Planning Commission will be dismantled as the administration moves away from population control.

What does it mean?

China’s birth rate dropped in 2017, down 630,000 compared to the previous year, despite the government announcing two years ago Chinese couples were officially allowed to have a second child.

The removal of the Family Planning Commission was both “important and symbolic,” Yi Fuxian, scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “A Big Country in an Empty Nest” told CNN.

“With the enforcer of family planning population policy retiring from the historical stage, China has completed a u-turn in the national population policy,” he said.

“I believe it’s the end of an old era and start of a new era for population policy — respect for life, protection of human rights, regard population as wealth rather than waste, and treat people as human beings rather than trash.”

[usviraltrends-blog]

New Post has been published on https://usviraltrends.com/xi-jinping-is-making-sweeping-changes-to-how-chinas-government-is-run-41/

Xi Jinping is making sweeping changes to how China's government is run

From a powerful new financial regulator to a super ministry to deal with the environment, wide-reaching changes to the way China is governed were passed by the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, on Saturday.

Experts said the sweeping reforms were some of the largest since the end of the Mao Zedong era in the 1970s.

“Clearly Xi is shoring up his power, but I would suggest what China also wants to do more than anything else is define a mode of government which is not liberal and at the same time … is predictable, reliable, which is safe for businesses to invest in,” Rana Mitter, director of the University China Center at Oxford, told CNN.

According to state media, under the new plan the number of ministerial-level bodies will be reduced by eight to make the government “better-structured (and) more efficient.”

However, Mitter said the entire Chinese power structure has effectively been reshaped around Xi’s priorities, including cracking down on corruption, shoring up the economy and environmental protection.

Here are five of the most significant changes and what they mean for China.

China is planning to formalize the rules for its new anti-corruption agency, the National Supervisory Commission or NSC.

It’s the latest stage of Xi’s ruthless campaign against corruption in China, which forced out multiple high-level party leaders and sent thousands of other officials to jail.

The new commission has long been teased in official media and its powers are expected to extend outside the Communist Party and the military to the rest of the government.

What does it mean?

In a December report examining the framework of the new commission, Amnesty International said it was concerned the body’s “far-reaching powers” could significantly infringe on Chinese citizens’ human rights.

It is expected to run parallel to China’s judiciary, effectively putting it alongside, if not above, courts and prosecutors. A Brookings Institute analysis of the new laws said citizens accused of corruption would have “little or no legal recourse” to challenge the body.

Jiangnan Zhu, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s politics department, said the new commission would have agencies at national, provincial, prefectural and county levels, giving it countrywide reach.

“It will be the highest state organ of supervision … It will help solidify the Chinese Communist Party’s hold of the Chinese government and discipline a wider array of people who engage in public sectors,” she said.

China is creating an environmental protection super ministry to tackle the growing problem of pollution in its fast-growing economy, the government announced Tuesday.

Air pollution killed more than 1.1 million people in China in 2015, the most in the world, according to a study published by the US-based Health Effects Institute.

Replacing the Ministry for Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Ecological Environment will set China’s future environmental policies as well as ensuring they are properly enforced.

New evidence from a University of Chicago study found China was making progress in its “war on pollution,” improving air quality by as much as 42% in parts of the country.

What does it mean?

Pollution control was one of “three battles” identified by Xi in 2017 as a focus for his second term as China’s President, the other two being defusing financial risks and eradicating poverty.

Ma Jun, one of China’s best known environmentalists, told CNN the new ministry would help to strengthen pollution controls and build a “beautiful China.”

“Taking water pollution as an example, the original duties of groundwater, watershed management and agricultural pollution control fall under various ministries and commissions … resulting in responsibility overlaps and buck-passing,” he said.

“After the integration of these responsibilities, the long-term situation of the ‘Nine dragons governing the water collectively’ will end,” he said, using a Chinese saying.

With the reorganization, China’s government will also take concrete steps to address the second of Xi’s three battles — growing concerns around financial risk and bad debt endangering the Chinese economy.

In May 2017, China’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s amid concerns over their debt levels, which rose to about 170% of GDP in the previous year. Seven months later, insurance giant Anbang was seized by the government, ostensibly due to concerns over its billion-dollar spending sprees outside China.

A new Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will be created by combining two former regulators, while the People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank — will be given additional regulatory powers.

According to party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the changes are designed to supervise China’s growing financial industries to avoid “financial risks” and protect consumer rights.

What does it mean?

The Chinese government and Xi himself have placed a huge emphasis on shoring up the country’s economy to avoid collapse or recession.

Shi Dalong, researcher with Suning Financial Services, said in a report the past supervision of Chinese banks and financial services hadn’t been smooth.

But there could be a risks going forward as the new commission and Xi ally Liu He work to tighten regulations, Tan Kong Yam, Economics professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told CNN.

“(In the past) there have been periods where they tighten credit and it lead to slower growth, so they had to relax somewhat. It’s a very fine balance between disciplining the system … and overliberalizing it,” he said.

Tan said there were also likely to be complaints from state-owned enterprises and banks as they found it increasingly difficult to get easy credit and loans to expand.

A new international development cooperation agency will be set up to help coordinate China’s aid across the world, according to state broadcaster Xinhua.

It will report directly to the State Council, China’s cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang. The aim is to enhance China’s international credentials as a “major country,” according to state media.

Previously China had no dedicated agency devoted to foreign aid, despite giving tens of billions of dollars in overseas assistance since 2000. There is little transparency over how China’s aid is spent, however, or how much is investment and loans compared to actual assistance.

What does it mean?

China has an increasingly ambitious foreign policy, including its huge Belt and Road trade and investment program, and is shaking up its foreign ministry as US global influence wanes under President Donald Trump.

Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister and director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, told CNN previously Beijing had provided aid in a “heavy-handed manner.”

“I think they will shift to a profile in overseas development that will resemble that of OECD countries,” he said.

“They’ve been studying it for some time and I think (the new agency) means aid will be more directly related to the social and economic needs of the state. Fewer big political or vanity projects and fewer examples of a Chinese-built road to a Chinese port to a Chinese mine.”

It was the agency that implemented China’s infamous one-child policy with an iron fist from its creation in 1981 until government control was relaxed in 2015.

Now the Chinese government has announced the Family Planning Commission will be dismantled as the administration moves away from population control.

What does it mean?

China’s birth rate dropped in 2017, down 630,000 compared to the previous year, despite the government announcing two years ago Chinese couples were officially allowed to have a second child.

The removal of the Family Planning Commission was both “important and symbolic,” Yi Fuxian, scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “A Big Country in an Empty Nest” told CNN.

“With the enforcer of family planning population policy retiring from the historical stage, China has completed a u-turn in the national population policy,” he said.

“I believe it’s the end of an old era and start of a new era for population policy — respect for life, protection of human rights, regard population as wealth rather than waste, and treat people as human beings rather than trash.”

[usviraltrends-blog]

New Post has been published on https://usviraltrends.com/xi-jinping-is-making-sweeping-changes-to-how-chinas-government-is-run-40/

Xi Jinping is making sweeping changes to how China's government is run

From a powerful new financial regulator to a super ministry to deal with the environment, wide-reaching changes to the way China is governed were passed by the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, on Saturday.

Experts said the sweeping reforms were some of the largest since the end of the Mao Zedong era in the 1970s.

“Clearly Xi is shoring up his power, but I would suggest what China also wants to do more than anything else is define a mode of government which is not liberal and at the same time … is predictable, reliable, which is safe for businesses to invest in,” Rana Mitter, director of the University China Center at Oxford, told CNN.

According to state media, under the new plan the number of ministerial-level bodies will be reduced by eight to make the government “better-structured (and) more efficient.”

However, Mitter said the entire Chinese power structure has effectively been reshaped around Xi’s priorities, including cracking down on corruption, shoring up the economy and environmental protection.

Here are five of the most significant changes and what they mean for China.

China is planning to formalize the rules for its new anti-corruption agency, the National Supervisory Commission or NSC.

It’s the latest stage of Xi’s ruthless campaign against corruption in China, which forced out multiple high-level party leaders and sent thousands of other officials to jail.

The new commission has long been teased in official media and its powers are expected to extend outside the Communist Party and the military to the rest of the government.

What does it mean?

In a December report examining the framework of the new commission, Amnesty International said it was concerned the body’s “far-reaching powers” could significantly infringe on Chinese citizens’ human rights.

It is expected to run parallel to China’s judiciary, effectively putting it alongside, if not above, courts and prosecutors. A Brookings Institute analysis of the new laws said citizens accused of corruption would have “little or no legal recourse” to challenge the body.

Jiangnan Zhu, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s politics department, said the new commission would have agencies at national, provincial, prefectural and county levels, giving it countrywide reach.

“It will be the highest state organ of supervision … It will help solidify the Chinese Communist Party’s hold of the Chinese government and discipline a wider array of people who engage in public sectors,” she said.

China is creating an environmental protection super ministry to tackle the growing problem of pollution in its fast-growing economy, the government announced Tuesday.

Air pollution killed more than 1.1 million people in China in 2015, the most in the world, according to a study published by the US-based Health Effects Institute.

Replacing the Ministry for Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Ecological Environment will set China’s future environmental policies as well as ensuring they are properly enforced.

New evidence from a University of Chicago study found China was making progress in its “war on pollution,” improving air quality by as much as 42% in parts of the country.

What does it mean?

Pollution control was one of “three battles” identified by Xi in 2017 as a focus for his second term as China’s President, the other two being defusing financial risks and eradicating poverty.

Ma Jun, one of China’s best known environmentalists, told CNN the new ministry would help to strengthen pollution controls and build a “beautiful China.”

“Taking water pollution as an example, the original duties of groundwater, watershed management and agricultural pollution control fall under various ministries and commissions … resulting in responsibility overlaps and buck-passing,” he said.

“After the integration of these responsibilities, the long-term situation of the ‘Nine dragons governing the water collectively’ will end,” he said, using a Chinese saying.

With the reorganization, China’s government will also take concrete steps to address the second of Xi’s three battles — growing concerns around financial risk and bad debt endangering the Chinese economy.

In May 2017, China’s credit rating was downgraded by Moody’s amid concerns over their debt levels, which rose to about 170% of GDP in the previous year. Seven months later, insurance giant Anbang was seized by the government, ostensibly due to concerns over its billion-dollar spending sprees outside China.

A new Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will be created by combining two former regulators, while the People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank — will be given additional regulatory powers.

According to party mouthpiece People’s Daily, the changes are designed to supervise China’s growing financial industries to avoid “financial risks” and protect consumer rights.

What does it mean?

The Chinese government and Xi himself have placed a huge emphasis on shoring up the country’s economy to avoid collapse or recession.

Shi Dalong, researcher with Suning Financial Services, said in a report the past supervision of Chinese banks and financial services hadn’t been smooth.

But there could be a risks going forward as the new commission and Xi ally Liu He work to tighten regulations, Tan Kong Yam, Economics professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told CNN.

“(In the past) there have been periods where they tighten credit and it lead to slower growth, so they had to relax somewhat. It’s a very fine balance between disciplining the system … and overliberalizing it,” he said.

Tan said there were also likely to be complaints from state-owned enterprises and banks as they found it increasingly difficult to get easy credit and loans to expand.

A new international development cooperation agency will be set up to help coordinate China’s aid across the world, according to state broadcaster Xinhua.

It will report directly to the State Council, China’s cabinet headed by Premier Li Keqiang. The aim is to enhance China’s international credentials as a “major country,” according to state media.

Previously China had no dedicated agency devoted to foreign aid, despite giving tens of billions of dollars in overseas assistance since 2000. There is little transparency over how China’s aid is spent, however, or how much is investment and loans compared to actual assistance.

What does it mean?

China has an increasingly ambitious foreign policy, including its huge Belt and Road trade and investment program, and is shaking up its foreign ministry as US global influence wanes under President Donald Trump.

Bob Carr, former Australian foreign minister and director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, told CNN previously Beijing had provided aid in a “heavy-handed manner.”

“I think they will shift to a profile in overseas development that will resemble that of OECD countries,” he said.

“They’ve been studying it for some time and I think (the new agency) means aid will be more directly related to the social and economic needs of the state. Fewer big political or vanity projects and fewer examples of a Chinese-built road to a Chinese port to a Chinese mine.”

It was the agency that implemented China’s infamous one-child policy with an iron fist from its creation in 1981 until government control was relaxed in 2015.

Now the Chinese government has announced the Family Planning Commission will be dismantled as the administration moves away from population control.

What does it mean?

China’s birth rate dropped in 2017, down 630,000 compared to the previous year, despite the government announcing two years ago Chinese couples were officially allowed to have a second child.

The removal of the Family Planning Commission was both “important and symbolic,” Yi Fuxian, scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “A Big Country in an Empty Nest” told CNN.

“With the enforcer of family planning population policy retiring from the historical stage, China has completed a u-turn in the national population policy,” he said.

“I believe it’s the end of an old era and start of a new era for population policy — respect for life, protection of human rights, regard population as wealth rather than waste, and treat people as human beings rather than trash.”